GP Gran Bretagna, prove sabato–29/06/2013

Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for his home grand prix in Britain by a commanding 0.4-second margin.

Hamilton won a huge battle with his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg as the silver cars monopolised the qualifying contest again.

A 1m30.096s early in Q3 gave Hamilton the initial advantage by a tenth and a half.

Rosberg beat that with a 1m30.059s on his second run, but Hamilton was already responding.

He came through to set a 1m29.607s and take a comfortable pole, his first at Silverstone since 2007.

Red Bull was Mercedes’ main rival, but Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had to be content with the second row. They were just 0.009s apart.

Hamilton was not the only Briton to star, as Paul di Resta added to the home crowd’s excitement with fifth on the grid for Force India.

His team-mate Adrian Sutil was up in seventh, behind the sensational Daniel Ricciardo. His Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne was way back in 13th.

Ferrari struggled badly. Fernando Alonso was only 10th fastest, beaten by the muted Lotuses as well as the flying underdogs, while Felipe Massa failed to get out of Q2 and will start 12th.

Despite predicting on Friday that Q3 would be impossible for McLaren, a mighty late-Q2 lap from Jenson Button almost got him into the top 10.

Unfortunately for the Woking team, Raikkonen squeezed ahead by 0.057s, leaving Button 11th. His team-mate Sergio Perez was 0.4s and three places further back.

One race on from his incredible Montreal qualifying result, it was back to reality for Valtteri Bottas. He was eliminated in Q1 and will start one place behind Williams team-mate Pastor Maldonado in 17th.

Sauber’s year continued in the same disappointing vein too, with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez 15th and 18th.

Max Chilton was troubled to end up slowest in his first Formula 1 qualifying session at home, especially with Marussia team-mate Jules Bianchi 1.7s faster (although he was behind Caterham’s Charles Pic in the backmarker shootout).

But Chilton will not start last as Giedo van der Garde will drop back due to his penalty for tangling with Mark Webber in Montreal.